Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Spiritual Rite of Passage [Featured at the Jewish Futures Conference]

Provides the tools and understanding necessary to create a conscious Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience infused with spirituality and meaning. The original purpose of this important rite of passage is carefully reclaimed: Ensuring a healthy Jewish lens for living is conveyed to each student; a lens that supports love of life and respect for life.The building blocks of a mitzvah-centered life are taught through the methods of experiential and Jewish spiritual education. Step-by-step guides and riveting true stories help all involved to feel personally "touched by Torah"; through weaving student and family feelings, needs, interests, skills and talents into the preparation process, ritual and celebration.

This innovative approach reduces stress and cultivates loving connections to family, friends, community and heritage. B'nai Mitzvah becomes a far more meaningful and memorable chapter of life as award-winning master teacher Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram inclusively leads every kind of family through this engaging, carefully researched and proven effective planning and preparation process.

"This book freed our family from the bar mitzvah machine that our Temple has turned into and helped us come up with a bar mitzvah that is relevant...It is full of wonderful ideas."
--M. Shellster, Parent

"Helps us to bring heart and soul to our involvement in Jewish life." Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Davenning: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer

Provides the tools and understanding necessary to create a conscious Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience infused with spirituality and meaning. The original purpose of this important rite of passage is carefully reclaimed: Ensuring a healthy Jewish lens for living is conveyed to each student; a lens that supports love of life and respect for life.